Europe

ATHENS — Greece unveiled tax incentives to boost the use of electric cars, motorcycles and bicycles, as part of its 10-year climate plan for lower carbon emissions. Greece now has only about 1,000 electric cars — 0.3 percent of its fleet — on its roads, a very low rate compared to other EU countries, such

SHANGHAI — Jaguar Land Rover has entered into agreements with lenders in China for a secured term loan facility of 5 billion yuan ($704.5 million), its first debt financing in China. Arthur Yu, chief financial officer of Jaguar Land Rover China, said the Chinese banks that would provide a three-year revolving loan included Bank of China,

FRANKFURT — Germany is doubling incentives offered to buyers of battery-powered cars as part of a 130 billion-euros ($146 billion) economic recovery package for the period through the end of next year — but the government refused pleas for the program to include pure internal-combustion cars. Buyers of full-electric cars with a net list price

STOCKHOLM – – Volvo Cars said its global vehicle sales fell 26 percent to 44,380 in May compared with the same month in 2019. Sales were helped by improving showroom traffic trends in Europe, a quicker than expected recovery in the U.S., and strong growth in China, the company said in a statement. Volvo said

BARCELONA — Nissan has estimated the closure of its operations in Barcelona could cost up to around 1.5 billion euros ($1.7 billion), a union source told Reuters on Monday. The cost of the closure is at the heart of a debate in Spain over the move, with the government saying it would be cheaper to

BARCELONA — Spanish prime minister Pedro Sanchez said on Sunday the government will launch an aid program for the country’s automotive industry following a decision by Nissan to close its plant in Barcelona. Last Thursday Nissan announced it would shut the plant employing 3,000 people from December as part of global cost cuts, prompting angry

MUNICH — BMW may offer more incentives to workers to persuade them to leave and help the automaker to reach a target of eliminating about 5,000 positions. BMW has been unable to meet its headcount-reduction goal with existing measures, CFO Nicolas Peter said in an internal posting confirmed by the company. Those have included placing

The decision to withdraw Datsun from Russia reverses the ambitious global growth plans for the brand envisaged by Nissan’s former Chairman Carlos Ghosn. Reviving the Datsun name, previously used by Nissan for export markets until 1981, was a key strategy of Ghosn, who wanted to expand in emerging markets by using older alliance technology to

LONDON — Incoming Aston Martin CEO Tobias Moers has agreed to a salary that is substantially below that of Andy Palmer, whose job he takes over at the struggling luxury UK automaker. Moers is moving to Aston Martin from his current job as head of Mercedes performance arm AMG and will be paid 850,000 pounds

MEXICO CITY — German supplier Bosch said it has received government approval in Mexico to restart operations, which had been suspended since late March due to measures taken to curb the spread of coronavirus. Government officials in mid-May said auto-related companies would be able to exit mandatory coronavirus lockdown before June 1 provided safety measures

The automaking alliance of Renault and Nissan was founded in 1999 and was dominated by Carlos Ghosn, the Renault executive sent to Japan to turn around Nissan after the French automaker took a controlling stake in the Japanese company. Ghosn went on to lead both Renault and Nissan. His arrest on financial misconduct charges in

Renault and Nissan have shelved plans to push toward the full merger former leader Carlos Ghosn imagined and will instead fix their troubled alliance to try to recover from the coronavirus pandemic, five senior sources told Reuters. Nissan has long resisted Renault’s proposals for a full-blown merger as executives felt the French automaker was not

Organizers said they were canceling the New York auto show this year after it had previously been pushed back until August, citing the ongoing coronavirus pandemic and the venue’s use as a field hospital. The show, which was initially set for early April and is typically used to unveil many new vehicles, was previously postponed

Hertz Global Holdings filed for bankruptcy in Delaware after sweeping travel restrictions and the global economic collapse destroyed demand for its rental cars. The Chapter 11 filing allows Hertz to keep operating while it devises a plan to pay its creditors and turn around the business. The action includes the company’s U.S. and Canadian subsidiaries,

A German startup run by a former Audi engineer has received backing for his planned makeover of the assembly-line approach to carmaking introduced by Henry Ford a century ago. The company, Arculus, wants automakers to abandon rigid production lines and adopt its more flexible platform in which self-driving robots move half-built cars to different sections. London-based

PARIS — French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said that Renault could go out of business if it does not get help very soon to cope with the fallout from the coronavirus crisis, while adding that the automaker also needed to adapt to the situation. In an interview on Europe 1 radio on Friday, Le

Deliveries of the Nissan GT-R 50, a limited edition sports car built in collaboration with Italdesign, will begin at the end of the year at a price starting at 990,000 euros ($1.09 million), the two companies said in an online launch of the production version. A prototype of the GT-R 50 was shown at the

FRANKFURT — Benteler’s move from Germany to Austria in 2010 cut its tax bill but may now create a hurdle as the company seeks to access state support during the coronavirus crisis. Benteler’s sales have slumped as demand for new cars collapsed in the wake of the pandemic, people familiar with the matter said. The

European passenger car sales slumped in April when the first full month with restrictions imposed to contain the coronavirus pandemic dragged sales to a record drop. Registrations plunged 78 percent to 292,182 in the European Union, Britain and the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) countries, industry association ACEA said in a news release on Tuesday.

TOKYO — Toyota, Honda and Mazda all intend to keep stoking their heavy spending on costly next-generation technologies, even as the COVID-19 pandemic inflicts financial pain on them. Toyota saw net income tumble 86 percent in the January-March quarter, and Honda plunged to a net loss. But both said cash reserves are fine and that

The dashboard, once the place where drivers checked their speed or changed the radio station, is fast becoming the car’s most valuable real estate, as automakers seek to generate new revenue through wirelessly delivered services, features and upgrades. The upgrades can include everything from in-dash apps up to software for electronic control units to reprogram

Daimler is suspending production at a Mercedes-Benz SUV plant due to a shortage of parts supplied from Mexico. The Vance, Alabama, operation won’t build vehicles next week, according to an internal notice viewed by Bloomberg. Workers are being given the option to use vacation time or go without pay and file for state and federal

Tesla plans to introduce a new low-cost, long-life battery in the Model 3 sedan in China later this year or early next that it expects will bring the cost of electric vehicles in line with gasoline models, and allow EV batteries to have second and third lives in the electric power grid. For months, Tesla

FRANKFURT — The billionaire families who control BMW and Volkswagen Group have become a stumbling block as German automakers seek to persuade the government to agree to on incentives to revive demand for new cars. Germans want to know why taxpayer funds should go toward helping the automakers when they are not canceling shareholder dividends

Nissan is planning to cut about 300 billion yen ($2.8 billion) in annual fixed costs and book restructuring charges as the coronavirus pandemic further depresses the automaker’s sales, a person with knowledge of the measures said. Those initiatives are likely part of a three-year plan that will be unveiled along with financial results on May

TOKYO — Honda plunged to a 5.6 billion yen ($51.9 million) operating loss in the latest quarter amid slumping sales as the coronavirus pandemic hammered the global economy. Operating profit swung into the red in fiscal fourth quarter ended March 31, from 42.3 billion yen ($392.4 billion) the year before, the Japanese automaker said in

Tesla sued local authorities in California as the company tried to reopen a factory there and CEO Elon Musk threatened to move Tesla’s headquarters and future programs from the state to Texas or Nevada. Musk has been pushing to restart Tesla’s Fremont, California, factory after Alameda County’s health department said the company must not reopen

Coronavirus-related factory stoppages have affected every automaker, but some are suffering more than others, a new analysis has found. Companies with more capacity in China, where the lockdowns were relatively short and focused on the province of Hubei, fared better than those heavily invested in Europe, India and North America, LMC Automotive said Thursday. Overall

Volvo wants autonomous vehicles to make up one-third of its deliveries by 2025. A key step toward achieving that goal will be equipping next-generation models such as the XC90 with the capability to drive themselves on the highway. A major hurdle, however, will be getting approval to activate the system. Volvo Chief Technology Officer Henrik

PARIS — Renault has suspended production at one of its French factories, following a court order criticizing the way the automaker told unions about its increased protective measures put in place to prevent the new coronavirus from spreading. Partial activity had resumed at the automaker’s Sandouville plant at the end of last month after a